1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic analyzing apparatus and, more particularly, to an automatic analyzing apparatus which is constructed such that it prevents an infectious aerosol generated from an inspected object, such as blood or urine of an organism, or a waste liquid, from injuring health of a human body, such as an operator, during inspection.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the fields of biotechnology and medical inspecting apparatus, there has been growing interest in so-called biohazard in recent years. Hence, there has been an increasing demand for measures against the infection.
To meet such demands, Japanese Patent Un-Examined Publication No. 63-252248 discloses a bacteria analyzing apparatus which includes sterilizing means for sterilizing, by heat or a disinfectant, a liquid sample on which an analysis has been made and a waste liquid made up of a sample spilled from a sample vessel before they are drained from the analyzing apparatus. However, the sterilizing process which employs heat requires a heating device, thus necessitating provision of heat insulation means, such as a heat insulating wall, in the analyzing apparatus complicated. The sterilizing means which uses a sterilizer or the disinfectant includes a sterilizing liquid feeding device for supplying a sterilizing liquid from a bottle thereof to a waste liquid tube. It takes some time for the sterilizing effect of the sterilizing liquid supplied to the waste liquid to be generated. Therefore, any reliable sterilization of the waste liquid drained from the analyzing apparatus through the waste liquid tube cannot be assured.
Japanese Patent Un-Examined Publication No. 2-31165 discloses an automatic analyzing apparatus which includes a filter for removing airborne particles (particularly, infectious aerosol containing microorganism) generated in a housing when a liquid sample is discharged from a probe to a reaction vessel within the housing and thereby preventing discharge of the airborne particles from the analyzing apparatus. Such filter is one of the effective means for preventing environmental contamination by the infectious aerosol. However, the filter cannot fulfill all the requirements for the apparatus. That is, the analyzing apparatus is provided with a vacuum pump to discharge the waste liquid from the reaction vessel after an analysis as well as the water used to clean reaction vessel to the outside of the apparatus. This vacuum pump discharges not only the waste liquid and the cleaning water but also infectious aerosol present in the vicinity of the reaction vessels.